A onda dobijem(o) odgovor iz Marvela…

Thanks for the new samples. There’s no worries about how much time it took you to do it. It’s understandable especially since you are not being paid for these.

I think there’s a lot of strong panels here but some of the story telling could be improved. Please keep these points in mind.

1. Change how close and how far away your camera is from the action. Move the camera around so the readers feel like they are moving around with the action.

2. Include more backgrounds to give us a better sense of place.

3. Loosen up the poses and facial expressions of the characters. Many look a little too stiff or are facing either a 45 degree or 90 degree angle toward the reader.

4. Try to draw the most exciting second of actions. It’s not enough to draw what is happening, but to capture the exact second when things are most exciting so the art is most exciting. Imagine what a sports photographer would look for if they’re trying to photograph a football game. What would be THE shot that would land them on the front page of a newspaper. This doesn’t have to be every panel but makes the story more dynamic and active. The reader then imagines the actions that led up to that panel and the ones afterwards and engages them more with the story.

Please feel free to work on these points on your own and later this year we can do another round of samples to see how you have developed further.

Change how close and how far away your camera is from the action. You are using mostly one distance from the action and it makes the story feel static. Make the reader feel like they are there in the scene with them. Move the camera around so the readers feel like they are moving around with the action. Pull the camera out to show more of the figures.

Loosen up the poses and facial expressions of the characters. Many look a little too stiff or are facing either a 45 degree or 90 degree angle toward the reader. This gets noticed and may lead the reader to become unexcited with the storytelling.

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By IPC I am referring to the company that used to publish many of Britain;s comics. It no longer publishes comics buts its comic assets are owned by Time Warner, owners of DC Comics. Most British comics are published by Titan, Egmont and DC Thomson, although there are some smaller publishers such as Lucky Bag.

Rebellion only publishes 2000AD and Judge Dredd: The Megazine, but has an impressive line of collected works from those two titles.

Emir

4 Avgusta 2010. u 16:17

The younger generation (1980 and onwards) got a very limited glimpse into English publishing. Older generations bought stuff like Modesty Blaise regularly, but during the 1990's and after the war the whole publishing game of ex-Yugoslavia was destroyed, and even today you rarely see English comics published (and again, only the old stuff – Modesty in Croatia, Dan Dare and Modesty in the Bosnian Strip Magazin…
Filip and I were very lucky to read newest Judge Dredd Megazines and 2000ADs every month or so in our local British Council library for some time (6 or 7 years as I recall, correct me if I'm wrong Filip) but now even that is gone because the library's been closed. Last I read of English production was the first 7 TPBs of Nikolai Dante I bought in Slovenia for a friend, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Sorry for the slow response: I set up an alert to tell me when someone had replied to my post but it doesn't seem to be working.

There is no right way to write a script. Alan Moore and others trained using the traditional IPC method and their scripts are incredibly detailed, leaving nothing to chance. (Some would say Alan's scripts are a work of art in themselves).

I will admit that my scripts are not as detailed, but I would insist that a writer clearly details an establishing scene, for example. Any important objects or details must be identified, even if they do not form part of the action in the first frame, so the artists doesn't have to go back and put them in later. (For example, if someone is killed with a sword that was hanging on a wall, we should see that sword!)

My feeling is that it is possible to be so demanding in a script that it gives the artist little room to ‘breathe’ and bring their own vision to the work. But at the same time, the writer must provide good clear storytelling and make sure important story elements are included in their directions.

I actually tried to go through one of Moore's scripts when I was starting to write (which wasn't too long ago, actually) but couldn't do it. I felt like, why did he need an artist to draw this, he should've just written a book?
And then I read the comic (V for Vendetta) and it just blew me away. When seeing the imagery without having to imagine what all that stuff looked like, it's a completely different work of art, the writing in itself just isn't enough.
One of the reasons I didn't quit writing even though these damned artists won't draw what I write. 🙂

Emir

4 Avgusta 2010. u 16:20

Ah, and you should check the box next to “Obavijesti me putem emaila o narednim komentarima.”, that will notify you about any new comments, the other one is about the newest blog posts.
We made the blog and chose the Bosnian setting in WordPress, but the translation is only partially done and goes on very slowly.

Speaking as a former Marvel UK editor and the current editor of the new STRIP Magazine in the UK, looking at the samples and Marvel's comments, I don't think the comments are criticism of the quality of the art.

The problem is the storytelling. Marvel (and British) comics work at a much faster pace than many European titles and you need to move the action along much faster. Use an establishing shot not only to let the reader know what the hero is seeing, but set up the next ‘action’ in the same frame. So when Wolverine looks at the ‘aquarium’, there is is no time in a Marvel comic to ‘tease’ the reader with what he has seen. You have to show it straight away, and if possible, suggest what might happen next.

I often find that part of the problem with seeing samples is that I do not see the script the artist was working from. An artist should not consider themselves a ‘slave’ to a script, and if the artist thinks they can ‘combine panels’ to speed up the action, you should.

One technique I learnt at Marvel UK was that you can have two actions in a frame, which you cannot do in film. So some characters could be dealing with what has just happened on the left of frame, while other characters are already beginning to go off and do something new, setting up the next scene. This is a kind of storytelling that is unique to comics.

I hope this is useful advice. It is neither a criticism of the feedback from Marvel you have posted or your art, I hope it is constructive.

Emir

2 Avgusta 2010. u 17:10

Yes, unfortunately, from what I've seen of the script and Filip's artwork, this is exactly what was in the script he received. I think that there is conflicting information on the web for new artists – it usually starts with – draw what's in the script. Ok, here you go, drawn comic. Yeah, it's not for us. But it's exactly like the script! Yeah, but we want to see more of your creativity and [insert stuff from the answers up there].

I believe each artist should work closely with scriptwriter so he/she knows exactly what is important and can illustrate that precise moment. If, for instance, it is written “Wolverine enters a room”, an artist can only illustrate shadows of objects. But it can turn up that story writer intended to emphasize on those objects. Things like that can roll onwards and in the end you end up with a comic which isn’t what scriptwriter wanted and which illustrator didn’t understand.
The exactly same thing happened here – to each one of us they throw a script and said “illustrate”. When we didn’t do it as expected they offered a loose response like “that’s not it”.
Each one of us knows how to draw, the question is to strike the style needed for the editor. And it’s pretty hard to live in a country where one cannot buy Marvel comics and get a script with instruction “illustrate it in Marvel way”.

But it was fun to draw/work on this and maybe the planets align again and I get in the mood of doing another set of test pages. Currently I’m working on 2nd book of Amnesia and I’m all into that cartoon drawing style which couldn’t be further away from the “Marvel way”.